Poor Little Reich Kids By Silver Fox

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Much as it pains me to say it, this week has found me thinking that we may - as right-thinking people (and if you're not a right-thinking person, what the hell are you doing hanging around my information super-lay-by? Piss off over to www.you'vebeenstillborn.net where the likes of you are better catered for) - have been a little harsh in our attitudes towards neo-nazis.

Now; at first glance, the preceded sentence may seem to be little more than padded-cell babbling - after all, how is anything short of strangulation with barbed-wire and the systematic flaying with rusty trowels a little harsh when dealing with the hard-core Far Right? It isn't of course, and I would be the first in the queue to introduce a crop-headed, piggy-eyed xenophobe to either or both of the aforesaid delights - to say nothing of spicing up the proceedings with a bucketful of powdered glass and a pair of wire-cutters.

Recent events, however, have made me wonder if we aren't sometimes a bit quick off the mark in scapegoating these witless trogs.

I refer of course, to such incidents as we saw in Albefuira this week and in Lincolnshire on Sunday night - an occasion that I am surprised not to have already seen described as The Boston Lager Party. These senseless, destructive rampages by tanked-up soccer scum have, regrettably, become as synonymous with the beautiful game as Des Lynam's quizzical eyebrow and people thinking that Jimmy Hill was a bit of a cunt. They are usually blamed on booze, police incompetence/brutality, or - lately - the infiltration of genuine fans by right-wing elements with an agenda of violence.

While I wouldn't put anything past Combat 18 et al, I've always been a mite sceptical about this rather pat explanation. Certainly; there is incontrovertible evidence that these nauseating human pustules do make concerted attempts to subvert international sporting occasions (and, for all I know, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show) in order to foster a climate of racist violence. I don't really think, though, that they are as important factor in these disturbances as they would like us to believe.

Aah, Foxy, many of you may be thinking, how could you, of all people - an avowed paranoid nutcase and conspiracy theorist - be so naïve? The Far Right is an insidious, ruthless enemy; cunning and resourceful. How can you be stupid enough to underestimate the threat that these shadowy monsters pose to the last vestiges of decency in a society already far gone down the path to perdition and terminal decay? OK, fair enough - and I commend you on your rhetorical panache.

Even though agreeing that groups that operate almost entirely from a platform of hatred and exclusion can never be dismissed as harmless, however, I still have reservations about dumping the blame for every burnt-out motor and trashed bistro squarely upon the swastika-patterned doormat of fascists. I am saying it because; for a kick-off (note the seamless blending in of sporting terminology, by the way), despite the alacrity with which the relevant authorities normally pin the tail on the nazi donkey, nobody has yet done so.

Secondly, I say it because I don't think it helps to get these headcases and hatemongers' balls all pumped up by crediting them with anything more than can be proven. Mostly, though, I make the point because - while harassing brain-dead, vicious, hate-filled vermin is both fun and laudable - it's worth considering that it's also a bit too easy; for sure, this subhuman trash represents a problem, but we shouldn't ignore the cause in favour of slapping the symptoms around their (skin)heads.

We live in a very conformist society. Differences - of lifestyle, of sexual orientation, of aesthetic sensibility, or whatever - are not encouraged. Even those people who do manage to toss off the shackles of consensus opinion tend to wind up within a subset of the common weald: they become hippies, goths, punks, fetishists..the list goes on.

It seems an inherent desire in most people to belong in some way; to identify themselves with a larger, more powerful group. Which of course, suits the great and the good down to the ground. Demographic groups are easier to sell to, after all; they simply have to glean some idea of a particular "type's" hopes, dreams, taste in trousers, etc, and you've got your customer base.

The average punter, of course, is easiest to deal with: they're just waiting to be told what they like, whether it be Ben Sherman shirts, Natasha Bedingfield, or pubs specialising in Great Surf and Turf Meal Deals. Those more on the fringe of things may appear to be a little harder to reign into Mammon's paddock, but really, the same principles apply. Surly, disaffected teens can be spoon-fed bands like Blink 182 and Slipknot (according to just how surly they are), black baggy schmutter, and Anne Rice novels just as easily.

Similarly, the more spiritual, new-agey types will clamour to be allowed to shell out shekels by the bucketload for any amount of mass-produced pagan/ethnic tat in order to establish their credentials as free-thinking individuals. It's a perfectly symbiotic system, really - those responsible for maintaining the status quo make a bundle - while at the same time ensuring that very few people stray beyond their boundaries, while we are free to express ourselves without compromising our secure position within our social group.

Poor Little Reich Kids By Silver Fox continued..

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